B.C. middle school teacher suspended for angry behaviour towards students

A class at a Toronto elementary school is seen on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)

A teacher in B.C. with a past of professional misconduct has been handed a two-day suspension, for incidents including yelling at pupils and touching a student’s face without permission.

The incidents took place during the 2020-21 school year while Alexandra Clare McLean was working as a middle school teacher for the Sea-to-Sky School District, according to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation’s consent resolution agreement.

The summary, published Jan. 21, details how the incidents took place March 15, 2021, when McLean was teaching a Grade 7 fine arts class. The incidents occurred during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when students and school staff were expected to wear face masks and follow physical distancing rules.

In one incident, McLean had forcibly pulled a student’s lowered face mask upwards to cover their mouth and nose, after the student refused to comply when McLean had asked them to wear the mask properly, said the summary.

When the student told their classmates McLean had adjusted their mask, one of them asked the teacher why she had touched the student.

McLean rejected the claim and said to the student, “I didn’t touch you, why are you saying that?” in a manner described by the students as yelling.

The incident followed an earlier event in which McLean shouted at students and kicked a piece of gym equipment after they disobeyed her request to not touch the weights in the school’s gym, where the students were working on a film project.

“One student reported feeling scared by McLean’s actions, and another reported feeling anxious,” said the summary.

The school district placed McLean on a leave of one month while the investigation into the misconduct took place. When she returned in April, a number of new incidents arose.

According to the summary, McLean yelled at students in her class, snatched pencils and papers from students’ hands, and made “negative comments” to students about their class, making some feel as though they were disappointing her.

McLean also told a student, “I won’t let you leech off this group,” in front of some of the student’s classmates, the summary added.

The district issued a letter of discipline and suspended McLean once again in June, for three weeks, without pay.

While reviewing her conduct, the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation took into account previous letters of discipline McLean had been given, including one in 2018 for allegations she had made unnecessary physical contact with and yelled at her students. In 2015 and 2014, McLean was also issued letters of expectation from the district following incidents in which she had not used “sound judgement” when interacting with students.

“McLean has engaged in a pattern of similar conduct and has been previously told by her employer that she needed to be mindful of the manner in which she interacts with her students,” said the commissioner, on her decision to issue McLean a further two-day suspension and six counselling sessions.

The sessions, to be completed by June 2025, will focus on “interpersonal communication” and “increasing awareness of how McLean’s actions are perceived by her students,” said the summary.